Instacart – Delivering the Goods to Southern Connecticut

Posted On November 8, 2017

One of the good things about working in NYC is you get to try new services before they hit Connecticut, like UberEats. I’ve tried Instacart last year when they offered deliveries from Whole Foods and Fairway Market. In May 2017, Instacart debuted in our area. Hooray! I’ve been using it for a few months now, and in the past week Balducci’s and Stew Leonard’s began using Instacart.

For those who haven’t tried it, or for the Instacart veterans, here are some tips on shopping:

Prices don’t always match the store. Stew Leonard’s list prices are higher. The manager at the Norwalk location confirmed Instacart adds an additional 15% onto Stew’s set prices. On the flip side, some of Whole Foods are priced similarly to what is marked in-store. Actually, I found some items may be cheaper in Instacart versus the store.

Weekly ad/sale prices are not reflected in the app.

You can’t use store coupons, however there are deals posted for each store within the app, like a “Buy 2, Bet $1.50 off.”

You can get free shipping if you hit the minimum purchase, but you can also get shipping fees waived if you purchase items within specified categories. For instance, if you buy $20 of Annie’s products (combination of mac n cheese, fruit snacks, etc), you’ll get the $6-$10 shipping fee waived.

OR

Even better… For customers who use the code “stewsexpress” to sign up by February 1, delivery will be free for up to a year on orders above $35. For one-time orders, delivery fees range between $6 and $10, with Instacart also offering an annual membership.

Service fees and tips. When you checkout, you’ll notice a service fee set to 10% by default. You can choose to remove this, and after doing so, you’ll notice you can also add a tip which goes directly to the shopper.

Okay, so you’ve place your order, now what?

In the app, you can track the progress of your shopper – what they’re in the process of purchasing, or where they are en route to your house. While they’re doing the shopping, you will be notified if something is out of stock and you can approve a substitution that they’ve selected. Say, they sold out of broccolini, would broccoli be a good substitute?

I don’t use Instacart exclusively. I like shopping in person — picking out the items I want, comparing prices, buying things I forgot to put on my list. But the service comes in handy when I don’t have time to go to the grocery store.

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Denise de Castro

I'm a Native New Yorker who now lives in Connecticut. I love food – cooking, eating, taking photos of food, attending cooking demos – all things food, and don’t forget about drinking wine. It could be anywhere – in my hometown, to abroad, anything food and drink goes here.